Allison's Story

My name is Allison and I live in Dunfermline. For a number of years, I was the main carer for my daughter, who had multiple and complex needs.I first became aware of Self Directed Support (then known as Direct Payments) through a social worker who thought this would give me greater scope for managing my daughter’s care at home. I was a single parent with 2 other children and this seemed to me to present the best way of ensuring a good quality of care for my daughter where she would feel most comfortable – at home with her family round about her. That way, she was still going to be part of family life!

Under SDS there are four options for managing care and I opted to employ my own staff because I had to be sure about who was working with my daughter. The admin side – payroll, insurance, tax etc. – was handled by a firm of accountants. With that burden removed, I was able to focus on managing my daughter’s care.

I was able to employ my older daughter as a Personal Assistant (PA). For some families, this might also be quite an important factor – and there are circumstances where it is possible to employ family members as PAs. This was particularly important in terms of my younger daughter’s comfort and ensuring that she felt comfortable with her carers. Her sister being involved made a real difference.

Having a settled group of care staff meant that they got to know what my daughter required – what her care needs were and how she responded to things. This shared understanding also allowed for a measure of flexibility in how her care was organised. I think, as a family, we were lucky in the range of skills and expertise our staff group had. They all grew through working with each other, all learning from each other’s specialisms. Obviously, this had knock-on benefits in terms of the quality and consistency of my daughter’s care.

There is no doubt in my mind that, without SDS, I would never have been able to manage the level of care my daughter required. With SDS, we were able to combine good quality professional care with the love and affection of her family. That really mattered!